I took my sister for a drive about an hour outside of Jozi to the Rhino and Lion Reserve. So far I’ve seen 3 out of the big 5 one of the animals I was missing was a lion. We were driving around the reserve (in the Clio, a questionable decision) and came upon Mufasa sleeping under a tree. I couldn’t get a good shot from inside so I got out of the car to snap him, and when I got back in I realized I had been standing 30 feet away from a fully grown male lion with nothing but grass between us. We saw zebras and two rhinos, as well as the usual ostriches, antelopes and wildebeests. Then we drove to the Animal Creche (which is a word for nursery) and had a chance to play with the 4 month old baby lions(!!!). They also bizarrely had tigers, white and regular, which is very odd because tigers are not native to the entire African continent. Regardless, it was a great opportunity to take close-up shots of them. The panthers, cheetahs, leopards all had fences on top of them, the tigers were left with nothing but sky. Clearly, these people do not know the deadly prowess of tigers (read this incredible New Yorker article about the tigers of the Sundarbans in Bengal). An interesting thing to watch was the stalking – the not-quite fully grown tigers would stalk anyone that they felt was small enough, mostly children (albeit through the fence). The last picture is of the tiger stalking my sister, which was quite thrilling to watch.

Oh, hey there!

Welcome to the Land of Nams. I'm Namrata and this is my creative outlet parade. I wish all of my time could be spent on food, travel, photography, clothes, sarcasm and DIY. I'm living on my fourth continent and daydream about being a safari guide and owning a jewelry store. Thanks for looking around, I hope you enjoy. xx